Some finds from Lowmead

[wazza/mechia]

Yeah i am looking at a secondhand one they want near to nothing for it ..only things it needs is a motor and water connections got brand new grinding wheel new expanding drum and new end polishing pad and a very thin cutting blade

 

[The Grey Ghost]

Wow, some good finds there. We are heading up in about 3 weeks. Does anyone know if it is possible to camp the night up there?? I have had a read back in the posts but have possibly missed the info if it has already been posted. Sorry.

 

[Lefty]

Wow, some good finds there. We are heading up in about 3 weeks. Does anyone know if it is possible to camp the night up there?? I have had a read back in the posts but have possibly missed the info if it has already been posted. Sorry.

Hi Grey Ghost.

I'm pretty sure that the owner doesn't mind people camping there as long as everything is tidied up when they leave. I've seen caravans parked there in the past. If you head down the track that comes off the road a hundred metres or so there should be some flat-ish spots. Just be careful getting up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature, there are holes everywhere

 

[The Grey Ghost]

Thanks Lefty. I will give it a go.

 

[Gazman]

Thay look sweet bro mad find lefty

 

[Lefty]

Rockhound and I headed to the diggings this morning for a scratch. We moved spots about four times with little success. Just before lunch time, I returned to the original hole we had started in the morning for a second go. It's taken a long time but I finally hit a large pocket of crystals - the biggest I have ever found myself or seen found at Lowmead. Almost all smokies with only one real amethyst but we weren't complaining

We didn't bother counting them all - including the small ones there would have been a couple of hundred at least. The small sieve holds the bigger ones, the large sieve is full of quartz gravel and heaps of little crystals, only small but still faceting size.

Some of the bigger crystals. Most not as long as the longest ones ktmman's brother found a while ago but very thick, up to a couple of inches in diameter.

They ranged in colour from a very light brown...

....to a deep, slightly orange-tinted smoky.

There were several crystal clusters and crystal-on-crystal forms.

This solitary amethyst sat on top of the pocket, the only one although some of the smokies have a slight purple tint.

I kept aside around 500 - 600 carats or so of the cleanest crystals for faceting, all of the colour shades are here. The bigger one on the top of the pile is a deep orange-tinted smoky and weight about 130 carats. It will facet a HUGE single stone, at least twice the size of anything I've done thus far. Way too big for a ring, it would make brass knuckles look dainty, even in a pendent it would look gigantic. Maybe I'll just facet it and mount it in a display box or something.

This was one of the biggest, actually a bit deeper in colour than the photo shows. Plenty of clean crystal in it but I'm not cutting it up, it can go on my rock shelf.

All in all it was a good day - about the best I've ever had there actually

 

[ktmman]

Mate.congrats on finally hitting it big . Sounds like you will be wearing out a few laps with the haul you got today.
Wish I had of been there to see it. Did you get any in ground shots of the pocket?

 

[Lefty]

Mate.congrats on finally hitting it big . Sounds like you will be wearing out a few laps with the haul you got today.
Wish I had of been there to see it. Did you get any in ground shots of the pocket?

Cheers mate.

No, I didn't but Rockhound might have taken a couple, I'm not sure. By the time we got to the bottom of it, it was filling up with water and we were trying to shovel slurry.

Messy but satisfying

 

[Rockhound]

Yeah it was a great day lefty Should get some nice gems out of them.Love those orange tinted ones.Here's some more

Didn't get any pictures of crystals in situ ktmman but this is the hole they came out of.

 

[Lefty]

I should have taken a photo of the shovel as it was being lifted up out of the pocket with the head just covered in crystals, blew us out to see that

Yeah, that orange-tint will make a bloody nice faceted stone I think.

Time for me to turn in - work sucks but I need the bucks :lol:

Cheers

 

[Sandta]

Awsome pics fellas
Would love to find some crystals like those
Thanks for sharing

 

[Heatho]

Nice work fellas, some great looking crystals in that haul. I've never gone specifically looking looking for Quartz crystals, might give it a go when it warms up a bit.

 

[Lefty]

Cheers everyone. Tingha sands would probably be the place for Sandta and Heatho, given you guys are in New South and quartz crystal fossicking doesn't come much easier than Tingha, the work has all been done for you. Never been there myself but a member of my club had some nice big light smokey crystals from there. You can get rutilated quartz which you don't find at Lowmead, although Lowmead produces amethyst crystals which I don't think you get at Tingha.

Lowmead requires digging and I think that most of the easy stuff on Clarkes road has already been dug over the past 40 years. Nonetheless, there are still pockets there as you can see. Just gotta be patient, persistent and above all - lucky

 

[Heatho]

Cheers everyone. Tingha sands would probably be the place for Sandta and Heatho, given you guys are in New South and quartz crystal fossicking doesn't come much easier than Tingha, the work has all been done for you. Never been there myself but a member of my club had some nice big light smokey crystals from there. You can get rutilated quartz which you don't find at Lowmead, although Lowmead produces amethyst crystals which I don't think you get at Tingha.

Lowmead requires digging and I think that most of the easy stuff on Clarkes road has already been dug over the past 40 years. Nonetheless, there are still pockets there as you can see. Just gotta be patient, persistent and above all - lucky

Yeah Tingha was where I was thinking, I have a friend that lives just up the road from the sand mine

Yeah the rutilated quartz (grass stone) from there looks sensational.

Though would love to check out Lowmead this time of year, much warmer than Tingha.

 

[KEZZ]

Hey lefty, awesome haul there. We are heading out tomorrow for a look.. I just got back from gympie today checking out some creeks in the mary valley.

 

[LONEWOLF]

Sorry for off topic but...
I Think you will find that working under the belt has been stopped at Tingha Sands now..... OH&S reasons ... But there's mounds and mounds of pre-plant stuff to go through... Best time was when they ran course sand not fine sand through the plant... just ask them when is the best time to visit...

If the plant isn't running, I think you can still have a poke around the plant and under the belt..... Best to call them first for operating times and what they will allow now...02 67233523


LoneWolf.....

 

[Lefty]

Cheers everyone. Tingha sands would probably be the place for Sandta and Heatho, given you guys are in New South and quartz crystal fossicking doesn't come much easier than Tingha, the work has all been done for you. Never been there myself but a member of my club had some nice big light smokey crystals from there. You can get rutilated quartz which you don't find at Lowmead, although Lowmead produces amethyst crystals which I don't think you get at Tingha.

Lowmead requires digging and I think that most of the easy stuff on Clarkes road has already been dug over the past 40 years. Nonetheless, there are still pockets there as you can see. Just gotta be patient, persistent and above all - lucky

Yeah Tingha was where I was thinking, I have a friend that lives just up the road from the sand mine

Yeah the rutilated quartz (grass stone) from there looks sensational.

Though would love to check out Lowmead this time of year, much warmer than Tingha.

Yeah, I saw a ring with a piece of cabochoned grass stone in it the other week, the shape of the cab would have been a marquise if it had been a faceted stone. Looked sort of like an eye with all these little needles floating in it, looked great!

Yes, I can well imagine it will be brass monkey weather in the New England area atm. Temps just nice for digging here now.

 

[Lefty]

Hey lefty, awesome haul there. We are heading out tomorrow for a look.. I just got back from gympie today checking out some creeks in the mary valley.

Cheers Kezz - how did you go?

 

[Lefty]

Sorry for off topic but...
I Think you will find that working under the belt has been stopped at Tingha Sands now..... OH&S reasons ... But there's mounds and mounds of pre-plant stuff to go through... Best time was when they ran course sand not fine sand through the plant... just ask them when is the best time to visit...

If the plant isn't running, I think you can still have a poke around the plant and under the belt..... Best to call them first for operating times and what they will allow now...02 67233523


LoneWolf.....

I thought it would only be a matter of time

There is a dirk bike/offroad vehicle park not far up the road from the Lowmead diggings, my bother takes his family there regularly. It's a great place if you like that sort of thing but I reckon it will only be open until the first significant collision.

We have to have OH/S for sure - but the extent of some of it's effects just end up strangling legitimate pursuits that have the slightest amount of risk of injury attached, such as fossicking.

 

[LONEWOLF]

Look at what happened at Black Duck Valley...... Boys will be Boys I suppose..... We are planning a visit to Lowmead in the near future Lefty... be good to catch up for a chat...

LoneWolf.....